[ringoism]

Originally Posted by nakul0888

The US Federal Govt spent like 6-8 trillion USD during the Covid pandemic, every other government was on a spending mission too like there is no tomorrow, to help the poor and the needy. Look at where its got us? All that trillions of spending and have anything been solved yet? Nope.
The answer to alleviating poverty has always been less sexy than people want it to be. Its grueling, steady, stable economic growth. Not some Bernie Sanders messiah or Mother Theresa who is going to make it better by sheer will power and courage to stand up to the elites or greed or whatever.

Can't quite agree there. The U.S. is statistically about the richest nation that has ever existed, with neverending "economic progress" - but even there many continue to struggle for their most basic needs, and the gap between rich and poor (as elsewhere) is enormous. "Economic growth" in a vague, idelalistic sense, tends to leave a LOT of people out of the loop. "Trickle down economics" is sometimes embraced as a license to neglect the poor or otherwise marginalized.

So firstly, just because trillions can be spent doing wrong things the wrong way in whichever scenario (which has been obvious to many whose voices have been suppressed) doesn't mean philanthropy is useless. Many with courage and willpower (and the financial means) "stood up to elites/ greed" and abolished slavery, freed nations, eliminated serious preventable diseases and outlawed social evils, etc, etc.

There are wise and stupid ways of spending. Extreme wealth can be wasted and squandered, while just a little rightly placed can sometimes make a world of difference for many. The Covid thing took too many by surprise, and made even "experts" look like bumbling idiots / frauds in some cases. With a little more time and thought, positive change of real significance CAN be enacted. Question is whether many of us bother to think about it, vs. chalking everything up to fate.

Secondly, if those $ trillions were directed "to help the poor and needy" as you say, then "solving" the problem was not the entire objective and success/failure cannot be assessed on that basis. There is value in mercy, in the alleviation of extreme distress at particular points/ periods in time, and in saving some lives here and there. To ignore that reality is to be callous. A large amount of elitist philanthropy may be self-serving and conscience-easing, but even that is probably preferable to being generally indifferent to the difficulties of others whilst pursuing one's dreams.

The one BMW I owned (a 12-year-old E32 735i I'd picked up at about a seventh of its original cost), I bought from a well-off engineer who over dinner and drinks confided with me that he was genuinely concerned for his kids. Concerned because they had grown up with every comfort and convenience in that pleasant suburbia, AND as young adults still had no idea how thousands of people were living just a few miles away in the urban slums. They had everything yet knew (thus cared) little for those very nearby who had almost nothing. If even half the world's rich had even that much thought towards others, I think the world would be a much better place.

Two things are clear:

1) Money (whether hoarding it or throwing it) isn't the answer for everything and can't "make" anyone happy;

2) Apart from any "charity" motives, it's quite certain that he sale/ exchange/ ownership of this particular car or others like it would not be making life "better" for anyone anywhere.

My view: In truth a car this wonderful (and it IS wonderful) really ought to be sitting on display in a museum somewhere - that is where great works of art do their best service of engendering inspiration and awe among the maximum number of people - allowing us to contemplate what, at our best, we ALL can achieve in the pursuit of a perfection which seems almost "otherworldy" - and ultimately belongs to (and should point us to) the divine realm.

Why is extreme beauty and perfection so elusive?
And why do we drool (hopefully figuratively) over it, while those with the skill strive again and again to draw nearer to creating it?

J.S. Bach signed most of his musical scores with "S.D.G." and a few here may know the significance (comes up in Google, btw). Apparently Bach, even as an extraordinary composer, knew that he was but a channel for that beauty, an agent of it perhaps - it was in reality something beyond him, not something he could rightly take full credit for - so he thought it right to credit his own Maker.

True beauty, then, cannot really be rightly possessed by whichever individual. It is transcendent, and at best when it manifests we ought to let others appreciate it, too. Not saying a beautiful wife should be carelessly shuttled all around to be groped at! Nay, but only a monster would pay dearly to possess her, then keep her locked in a closet to be brought out only for his own audience, pleasure, and profit.

-Eric

[offroad]

I recently got opportunity to visit the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart and looking at the Mercedes Benz SLR 300 in person i understood the passion on why it was bid so high. A beauty. A truly masterpiece. Sharing couple of pics of MB SLR 300' from my visit.